1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system manufacture, and more particularly to a system and method for single piece, first in first out (FIFO) flow for information handling system manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One advantage with the purchase of information handling systems is that selection from the wide number of components available to build information handling system allows end users to tailor information handling systems for specific functions and price points. In a build to order manufacture process, a manufacturer accepts end user orders that specify hardware and software components for an information handling system and then builds the information handling systems according to the end user's order manifest. End users select from chassis and housings having a variety of shapes and sizes and load the chassis or housing with components having a wide variety of capabilities. For example, different processors have varying processing speeds and power consumptions, and different types and quantities of RAM can significantly impact processing capability. Selection of less capable components reduces system cost while still meeting requirements for desired functions, such as word processing.
Manufacturers of built-to-order information handling systems face some unique difficulties in the manufacture process. A typical assembly-line approach for information handling systems having varied configurations often results in inefficiencies because each information handling system coming down the line has unique attributes. One approach that helps to maintain a conventional progressive assembly line is removing high variation components from the assembly line to a separate assembly process. Variations include both specialized hardware components and specialized software components which often introduce variation in the “burn” time for loading and testing the software on the information handling system. Moving process steps out of the progressive assembly line introduces multiple inefficiencies in manufacture with separate and suboptimal assembly process components. The separation into multiple assembly processes leads to higher order cycle time, higher work in progress, reduced order purity, decreased space utilization, excessive capital investment and an overall higher cost to manufacture product.
An example that illustrates the difficulty of build-to-order manufacture is the use of a burn rack for multiple variations of information handling systems. Because the burn time varies significantly based upon configuration, adjacent locations of the burn rack will have finished products at widely varying times. A common end user purchase order manifest for multiple systems will have those systems spread across divergent locations of the burn rack, increasing the complexity of accumulating common orders upon completion of manufacture. Further divergence occurs when a system from an order of multiple systems fails a test or is otherwise sidetracked during software burn. As a result, traditional progressive assembly processes perform software burn disconnected from the assembly line. A burn area is set aside for accumulation of systems to account for variations in work content as well as time taken by test failures and repairs during system burns. However, the burn are often becomes an area of inefficiency in that related orders are distally spread throughout the rack leading to difficulties gathering related systems to forward to shipping.